SJC to consider case involving post-colonoscopy accident

Is there anything in life more unpleasant than undergoing a colonoscopy? Try undergoing a colonoscopy and then getting into an accident on the way home from the hospital.

Next month, the Supreme Judicial Court will hear the case of Leavitt v. Brockton Hospital, Inc., et al., in which hospital staffers are accused of allowing a patient to go home after a colonoscopy procedure without an escort. The procedure typically requires sedation and leaves the patient groggy for a considerable time after completion.

In Leavitt, the patient decided to walk home unaccompanied and subsequently was injured in an accident.

A police officer en route to help the patient became involved in an accident himself and consequently sued Brockton Hospital.

According to briefs filed in the case, the attorney for the police officer asserts that the hospital breached a duty to the officer and should pay for its error.

The hospital’s counsel counters that it owed a duty only to the patient, not the police officer, that the officer’s injuries were unforeseeable and that he is entitled to no damages.
The SJC will weigh the parties’ arguments on Feb. 5.